Number Shaped Envelope Surprise

I love surprising people on their birthdays with special notes written by their friends and family. With email it is so easy to do a project like this last minute. You just ask everyone to email a note or memory and photos. Then you put them in envelopes and surprise the person. I’ve done a few versions of this over the years see here and here. This presentation works great for a birthday or anniversary because you can put the envelopes in the shape of the birthday or anniversary year. It’s easy as pie. See full instructions below.

Click through for photos and instructions

Materials: Envelopes of Various Sizes and Colors, Painter’s Tape, Emails and notes from several people, A Blank Wall

Step 1: Place the envelopes on the floor in the shape of the number you want. Adjust them until you like the way it looks. Step 2: Take a picture of your number. Step 3: Referring to your picture of the number shape, place the envelopes on the wall using tape. Step 4: Put the birthday notes inside the envelope. Et voila! You’ve got a birthday surprise!

oh this is such a lovely idea. my boyfriend has been having a rough few days and i think something like this would definitely help cheer him up… his bday isn’t anytime soon so maybe i’ll arrange them as a smiley face instead!

Oh em gee! I JUST did this for my husband’s 40th last week or a version thereof and the envelope idea would have saved me a ton of time. I superimposed letters people sent me about him onto colourful backgrounds and had them printed as photos at my local one hour place. You can see it here (the tape idea would have been helpful too-my 40 was a bit lopsided-it was somewhat hurriedly assembled momedy.blogspot.com/2013/04/happy-birthday-aaron-sayer.html